Barclays chief tells staff to sign up to ethics or leave

Barclays boss Antony Jenkins has told staff to sign up to its new caring, sharing values – or quit.

Jenkins, who is on a crusade to clean up the bank’s sullied reputation, warned there is ‘no place’ at Barclays for those who do not ‘fully buy in’ to its ‘new purpose and values’.

In an impassioned memo to his 140,000 employees, he admitted that banking had ‘lost its way’ and become ‘too aggressive’.

Crusade: Barclays boss Antony Jenkins is on a mission to clean up the scandal-hit lender's reputation

He laid out plans to link bonuses to
ethical behaviour rather than short term profits, promising: ‘We must
never again be in a position of rewarding people for making the bank
money in a way which is unethical or inconsistent with our values’.

Critics complained about delays in
introducing the new system and described it as ‘shocking’ that Barclays
does not already subscribe to these basic standards and has to tell
staff how to behave.

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Jenkins has promised a radical
shake-up since being appointed to succeed Bob Diamond in August after
the bank was fined £290million for rigging Libor interest rates.

He told staff the bank’s core values will be ‘respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship’.

Some 1,000 managers will be trained over the next few weeks so they can instil these values in their staff.

In the summer, a new ‘performance
assessment approach’ will be introduced for senior employees, and will
be used to measure 2013 bonuses. The system will be rolled out for all
employees over the following 12 months. Criteria are likely to include
feedback from customers.

Jenkins warned staff who fail to
‘fully buy in to’ the new approach: ‘My message to those people is
simple: Barclays is not the place for you.’

Last month investment chief Rich Ricci
revealed senior staff had visited a zoo to study animal behaviour as
part of their re-education.

Deborah Hargreaves, chair of the High
Pay Centre said: ‘The fact that values have not been considered before
when paying bonuses is shocking. This all just shows how the culture was
“make money at all costs” under Bob Diamond.’

Jenkins will unveil his strategy for
Barclays next month. He is expected to scale back the investment bank,
axeing as many as 2,000 jobs.

The lender has appointed lawyer Anthony Salz to conduct an independent review into its culture and standards.